Something A Little Different
by causeivebeenhavingdreams
Summary: Merri wasn't really ready to move to Japan with her brother Thomas. Who would be considering that she now has to go to school after being home-schooled her whole life. She ends up having to fight through her social anxiety to actually get used to the people at DATS and the new world around her. MarcusxOc
1. Chapter 1

Why did Tokyo have to be so big? It was always so hard to find your way around this place. You would think that it would be easy to find just a simple grocery store, but of course with my luck, I could barely even find a fast food place. All I wanted to do was make dinner tonight, since I was sort of a guest. Thomas would get mad at me for it, but he was always getting mad at me for lots of things.

Like not wanting to go to school. He was mad at me for that. He didn't really seem to understand that I lacked some of the skills it took to actually make it in school. I was some sheltered homeschool kid. I would never survive in public school. Though I don't think he would every be able to understand. He was able to graduate at the age of eleven. He never really had to deal with any of the actual hard stuff that came with school.

Suddenly a small white pendant on a chain landed right next to my feet. I picked it up to examine it, but it was completely blank. The chain was broken, like it had been ripped off of something. There seemed to be some commotion coming from up ahead of me. People were looking a bit confused and shocked. My curiosity got the best of me, as I walked towards it.

All I saw was a boy running right towards me. I thought that he was going to run into me, but he stopped just in time before he would have crash landed and sent us both to the ground. He bent down and was panting heavily, and sweat seemed to be falling from his face. His golden brown hair was in his face, keeping me from exactly knowing what he looked like.

"Um..." I said quietly.

He stood up straight and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry." He then paused for a second, seeming to get a good look at me. It was as if he lost his train of thought, before he finally noticed what I had in my hand. "You found my pendant."

"This is yours?" I pushed out of myself. Damn my constant social awkwardness.

"Uh yeah. Some jerks back there pulled it off my neck and threw it. I'm glad that someone found it." He smiled but it was some form of a crooked smile that I could only describe as cocky.

I handed it to him and said, "it landed right in front of me." I made sure that at no point our hands touched, mostly because I didn't really feel the need to make myself more flustered than I already was. That would have only been some sort of death sentence to myself.

"Well thanks for not just throwing it away or anything like that." It must have been some personal gem to him, because there was honestly nothing _that _special about the thing.

"No problem." I considered my options, and realized that this guy was probably the only chance I had of not getting myself completely lost in this city. "Um since you are here, can you tell me where the nearest grocery store is?"

He looked at me a bit shocked, then laughed. "You must be new in town," he pointed in front of him. "Head down that way and then after three traffic light, turn left and you should find it."

"Um thanks." I started that way, feeling a bit shaken up by the actual human interaction that I had just had.

* * *

I really didn't want to go to DATS. It wasn't like I didn't enjoy the people there. Everyone there was very nice, and Yoshi had become a friend of mine the last time I was here, but it had been so long since then. I knew that Yoshi and everyone else would be just as nice as they were the last time I was here, but I also knew that even though I knew that, I would still be some nervous wreck who couldn't make her way through a conversation.

Thomas led me through the halls of DATS over to main room. The whole place was just so familiair to me, but yet so different. I was much shorter the last time I was here. I was probably about six inches shorter, so all of my memories made me think that this place was much bigger than I thought. When I first saw Thomas it shocked at how much closer I was to his height than before. And Gaomon seemed way too tiny now.

We finally made it to the doors that led to the main room. This was the place that I remembered the most about Japan. I remembered sitting with Yoshi and talking almost all of the time, and the time that Micki and Megumi tried to explain to me how all of their systems worked. I eventually just spaced out but kept a smile on my face like I was actually listening.

I first spotted Yoshi, who right when she saw me yelled, "Merriment," and then ran to me and hugged me almost knocking me over. She had also shrunk since the last time I saw her.

"Yoshi. Hi." I managed to get out, hugging the other girl back.

She then let me go giving me a chance to again know this thing called breathing. "Merri it's so good to see you."

Thomas smiled. "It has been awhile since you've been to DATS, hasn't it Merri?" I nodded. It had been so long that she wasn't used to the members of DATS anymore. I felt that nervous feeling in her stomach as Yoshi grinned at me. Oh man, I really hated this situation that Thomas had placed me in. I knew that he didn't know that I felt completely uncomfortable about coming here, but it really made me a little irritated that he was my brother and he didn't even notice.

"Hey boss isn't that the girl that you said was really pretty!?" I looked over to my left to see the boy from yesterday, wrapping his hand around the mouth of some giant lizard thing.

We both stared at each other for a second, him seeming really freaked out by the whole ordeal. He finally said with a nervous tone, "um, hi."

It took me a second to respond. "Hi."

Thomas turned his head back and forth from me and the boy. "You two know each other?"

"Not really." The guy said letting his lizard thing go. "She just saved my pendent yesterday."

"Yeah that's right." I said to Thomas, who instantly flared up finally taking in what that lizard thing had said.

"And what's this thing about you thinking she's pretty, Marcus!?"

So this must have been the infamous blockheaded and annoying Marcus Damon. Thomas had told me that he thought way to high of himself and had a major ego, but from what I was seeing right now, he was absolutely terrified of my brother. "What!? It's nothing. Agumon's just fooling around!"

Agumon looked at him confused. "But boss you talked about it all of yesterday."

Thomas got right in his face, and I imagine looked pretty terrifying in Marcus' eyes. "I'm pretty sure Agumon's not one to lie Marcus! What were you planning on doing with my sister?"

"I wasn't planning on doing anything, I swear!" Marcus held up his hands in the 'I don't have a weapon' sort of way.

By this point, I had already had enough of this. "Thomas stop it."

Thomas looked back at me with a very pissed off look, only to find that I had the same exact expression on my face. He must have realized that I was irritated with him, because he backed off of Marcus and stood next to me again. "Sorry I'm just looking out for you."

I simply bit my lip trying my hardest to not go off on my brother. He was always so protective of me, even over the littlest things like this. It was understandable, but it was still extremely irritating. Though by what I had seen over the years, it was normal big brother behavior. I guess it was just some instant requirement to be completely bat-shit crazy.

"Hey Thomas," I turned to Yoshi who seemed to be trying to change the subject, probably because she didn't want Thomas to go to prison for homicide, "is Merri staying for good this time?"

Thomas grinned. "She sure is. Father thought that it would be a good idea to send her over here with me. I'm rather happy about it. It gets lonely having a house all to myself."

"Well that's great." Yoshi turned to me. "I've always enjoyed it when you visited."

I became flustered again. In these situations you always gave some sort of smile, so that's what I at least tried to do. "Thank you Yoshi. I've always enjoyed visiting here too." That seemed good to say. That would probably make her happy.

"So will you be going to school here, or will Thomas be doing your homeschooling?" I wish he was doing my homeschooling.

"She is actually going to public school. Oshinawra Academy. I checked all of the school's stats and it seems to be a very nice place." Thomas answered for me. He was always doing that. He knew that I couldn't answer for myself most of the time, so he just did it for me. It was a nice gesture but you know, he wasn't really helping the whole social anxiety problem.

"Well that's nice. You know Merri high school's gonna be hard at first, but I know you'll get it." Yoshi always seemed too peppy about some things.

"Uh thanks Yoshi." Saying people's names. That was also something that was good when trying to be social. My therapist from a long time ago told me that. That was one of the only things that I remembered from that whole ordeal.

I looked over to Marcus and Agumon and they seemed to be having their own little conversation. That was probably a good thing. Thomas seemed ready to snap his neck. Thomas did seem to need an excuse to finally beat that guy to a bloody pulp, just to release some anger that he had for him.

"I'll bring Merri back here tomorrow. She still needs to get settled in. I just wanted to bring her over to say hi." Thomas explained.

Yoshi nodded. "Maybe tomorrow we can go get coffee or something?"

"Uh yeah. Sounds nice." I smiled, trying to look as pleasant and not un-comfortable as possible. That was pretty much what I was always trying to do. Just get through everything by looking pleasant and not like you were dying a little bit inside with every word you spoke.

Me and Thomas began making our way out of the building. "All right, see you guys tomorrow." Thomas said. I didn't say anything. I was never really that good with good-byes. I was never really good with greetings either.

* * *

I was screwed. I was so freaking screwed. It was my first day and I was going to be late. God why did this school have to be so hard to find. You would think that my genius brother could have given me better directions. Hopefully my first teacher would be understanding. I finally found the classroom, which was like right at the end of the school of course. I opened the door, to find about a whole enitre classroom full of kids that were staring right at me.

"Ah Norstein. It's your first day and you decided to be late." The teacher had this sort of 'no excuses' attitude to him. I had heard from an old friend back home that a lot of teachers were like this. Sometimes it wouldn't even matter if you were literally puking up all of your guts, there were no excuses.

I simply brought out the kiss-ass side of me that I probably got from Thomas and said, "sorry I'm late sir. I had a hard time finding the school."

"Just make sure that it doesn't happen again. Now go and find a seat."

"Yes sir." Jesus get that pole out of your ass.

There were a few empty seats, and I had to quickly figure out which one I would sit in. I hated having everyone stare at me, trying to figure out who I was. I just wanted to find a seat, and fast. I looked over to her right to see Marcus. He waved a hand at me and smiled. Surprisingly he seemed to want to still talk to me. Feeling a little less stressed, I took the seat behind him and sighed.

"Alright class, today we're going to talk about..." I rested my head on my hand as the teacher began talking. So this was my first lecture that was leading up to probably a million other lectures. I tried to listen at first, but it was hard when I could just as easily look outside and daydream for a while. Besides I could simply ask Thomas to explain everything and probably get more information out of it.

Marcus turned around in his seat, having that same crooked smile from two days ago. "So I guess you'll be going to school with me from now on."

I smiled and nodded, not really sure what to do. I really didn't want to get in trouble for talking. Because of course that would lead to everyone staring at you. I really just wanted to stay as invisible as possible. It was better than having everyone notice me.

"Don't try and ask me for help. I'm not really good at this school stuff." I didn't really expect him to be good at this stuff. By what I had heard this guy wasn't really the school type.

"Well I'm new at it, so we'll see how it goes." I whispered, staring out the window seeing the tall buildings in the distance. I wasn't really good at looking people in the eyes. It was like staring into their soul or something.

"Mr. Damon!" The teacher yelled. He threw a piece of chalk right at his forehead, and I had to try my hardest not to laugh. "Pay attention!"

"Yes sir." Marcus managed to get out. Rule number one of school: Don't talk or else have a piece of chalk thrown at you.

School was over after awhile, and everyone began shuffling out of the classroom. I gathered my things along with every other kid in the class, and headed out the door. I was extremely happy that this day was over, and was also extremely sad that tomorrow I would have to sit through all of this again. Being stuck in one place with about twenty other kids for about an hour, and having to find my way around this school. Lets just say it wasn't really my cup of tea.

I had to find my locker, so I could put away all of the things that I didn't need to bring home. I thought about all the classes I had today, and the only one that looked remotely promising was first period. Hell Marcus was the only person that actually spoke to me today. Everyone else acted as if I was invisible and continued talking to their group of friends. I didn't like this place. I really wanted to go back to being homeschooled. At least there I got to sleep in and ended up learning a lot more because I was actually awake enough to pay attention.

I turned around only to see Marcus in her line of vision with a group of friends around him. He walked over to me, seeming a little bit too excited by my presense. He had for some reason presumably called me pretty. I was only happy that someone was willing to talk to her. Even though it was what I wanted, I had been ignored so much today, that Marcus was like some god-sent.

"So Merri?" Marcus asked. "Where are you headed after this?"

I smiled. Again being pleasant. "Home of course. Then me and Thomas will head over to DATS."

"Maybe we can walk over to DATS together?"

I sighed as we began to make our way out of the school. Marcus actually didn't seem that bad, but I really didn't want to have some awkard walk to DATS with him. "With Thomas' outburst yesterday, I don't think he would really like that."

"Oh c'mon I saw that look you shot him yesterday. You were able to calm him down in about five seconds. I'm sure that if you just asked him, he wouldn't have a problem." He had more faith in me than he should have.

"You don't really know my brother, do you?"

"Not really. He sort of hates me."

Trust me, I knew that before I even saw you two together. "He told me about you. He said I should stay away or risk losing about half of my brain cells."

Marcus looked at me shocked. "He really said that?"

I nodded. "Yep. He also told me that you were a blockhead and extremely annoying."

He seemed irritated, as one would get when they learn that someone has been calling them blockhead, and asked, "well what do you think of me?"

"So far you're the only person that's actually tried to talk to me today, so I guess you're okay."

Marcus let out a soft smile. "Good. I really don't want you to hate me."

"Why would I? I barely even know you."

"Well I was worried that you would think that I was some weirdo or something."

"I'm not going to judge you. I'm pretty sure I'm the wierdest one out of the two of us.

A group of big guys then walked up to us, and seemed very angry with Marcus. "So Damon, I see you've found yourself a little girlfriend?" The guy in the front mocked.

Oh man one nerve racking situation after another. School was a horrible, terrible place for an anti-social outcast. Marcus seemed just fine with the comment, with a wide smirk on his face. "It's more than what you'll ever get. I imagine other people's fists are the only physical contact you ever get."

"I'm so tired of your big mouth Damon!" The guy sent a fist right at Marcus. Marcus simply grabbed his arm and flipped him to the ground. Seriously? The guy seemed about twice his weight, but Marcus was able to flip him with no effort.

"Do you really wanna fight me Kogi?" Marcus sent a glare at Kogi's gang, and they ran off. Kogi then got up and ran away himself, like some scared little kid.

I stood there in utter surprise. "Were... were those the guys that threw your pendant?"

"Yep. And I definitely showed them." He grinned. "They didn't even know what was coming."

I was still trying to wake myself up after the shocking display that I had just witnessed. "You definitely showed me too. Thomas said you were pretty tough but you just threw that guy on the ground with no effort whatsoever."

Marcus seemed a little too proud of himself. Like the kind of proud that should get him some ego award. "It wasn't that hard. I've knocked out bigger guys than him. Now are we heading to DATS or what?"

I was still at a loss for words. "Um... yeah let's go."

* * *

I swear Thomas was just trying to see how pissed off I could get. I figured it out. This was all some sort of messed up test to test my patience. Marcus and I had already made it to DATS, awkward walk and all, and Thomas still wasn't answering his phone. You would think with how protective he was, he would answer his phone in an instant. "Thomas still won't answer his phone."

Marcus shrugged. "Maybe he forgot it or something."

I sighed. "But if he doesn't know where I am, he's gonna kill me. I really don't feel like having him yell at me."

"Keep trying."

"I will." I brought my phone back to my ear and again, tried to call Thomas.

Marcus' ear piece began to ring and I watched him pull it out of his pocket, seeming to know that some annoying thing was coming. He pressed one the buttons that answered the call, and I heard Yoshi's voice come from out of the piece.

"Marcus where are you?"

"I'm right outside with Merri. She's trying to get ahold of Thomas, but he's not answering his phone."

"What!? You have Merri with you?" Oh man I was screwed. Yep it was official. Worst day ever. I was about to get the scolding of a life time. My children will tell their grand-children about this time for some lesson about talking to whoever is in charge of you or some shit like that.

"What's the big deal?" Oh Marcus you ignorant fool. If you only knew. I figured at least _you_ would have already picked up on the fact that Thomas is an over-protective little bastard.

"Thomas is here and has been worried sick about where she's been."

"Well if he just answered his phone, there wouldn't be a problem."

"Look just bring her inside so Thomas can stop worrying." Yoshi do you want me to die a horrible and painful death?

Marcus put his ear piece back into his pocket and looked at me. I sighed. "Thomas is going to be pissed."

"I'm sure you'll be fine. Don't worry." EASY FOR YOU TO SAY.

The two of us then went inside and the whole way I was preparing myself for the scolding I was about to recieve. It was if I was some sort of child to Thomas. Though Thomas always had been a better father than my own. The doors opened to the main room, and I instantly spotted Thomas, who seemed to be freaking out. He was usually so suave and calm, but right when he thought I was in some sort of trouble or I did something he would lose his mind. Like literally lose it. I probably couldn't even find it right now, it was so lost. "Merri where were you!? I was worried sick!"

"I was with Marcus! If you answered your phone then maybe you would've known that!" People probably never really saw me as the yelling type, but right when Thomas would start to yell at me, that was usually when I took my chances and went off on someone.

"I forgot it at home! It wasn't my fault! And besides you shouldn't be walking with people you barely know! Especially him!" I moaned out of anger and simply sat down in a chair and began pulling things our of my bag. I laid out my homework in front of me and began to work out of frustration.

I heard Yoshi say, "She... she's doing her homework." Why yes it is a thing that I usually do when I'm mad. Keeps my mind off of things.

I began scribbling away at the paper, trying not to look up. I knew that if she didn't look at him, he would eventually feel bad. I knew he couldn't stand it when I was angry with him. He did always go crazy, but he would eventually fall back to earth in a million shattered pieces and realize that I was mad. I honestly think it broke his heart every time. It made me feel bad, but I was too stubborn to ever admit that I did anything wrong, or to be the first one to apologize just to stop some fight.

After what seemed like forever, I heard Thomas walk over to me. He held out his hand to me and said, "I'm sorry that I yelled. I realize that you were just walking with a friend. And I shouldn't have left my phone at home."

I took his hand in mine. "I should have talked to you about it in person before I just left. I'm sorry."

We shook hands. That was usually how our fights worked. They were always short, sweet, and to the point. There was never any of the grudges or fist fights like normal siblings had. We would just shake hands and make up. Thomas then leaned over me and said, "now do you need help with your homework?"

"Huh?" I heard Yoshi gasp. "They're already over it?"

"I barely listened and I understand all of this homework. It's mostly things that my old teacher went over." I explained. I even at one point fell asleep in my government class, though I would never actually tell him that.

"Well that's good. So school should be pretty easy for you." Did he even realize that there seemed to be more to school than just the actual work?

I leaned over Thomas to speak to Marcus, trying to see just exactly how smart or dumb this guy really was. "Hey Marcus, do you understand the homework?"

"Huh? Of course I do. I thought it was pretty easy myself." He smirked. He was about to speak some major bullshit.

"Really Marcus? I don't believe you." Yoshi glared at him.

I smiled, listening to Marcus try to prove to them that he understood. All he said was complete bull, but it was very entertaining. I was actually kind of happy about being here, or at least here at DATS. Everyone was so nice here. It was a good change of pace from Austria, where the only person who remotely treated her like a decent human being was Relena. And even that still hurt me inside. Either way I was stuck here. Father probably wouldn't let me come back home, and Thomas would be heartbroken if I wanted to leave him. School probably wouldn't be that hard to get through. I just... had to get used to it. Yeah, I just had to get used to it, just like Yoshi said. I had been through much worse things, I could get through this. All I would have to do was pass and then I could quickly get through school with no worries.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Thank you for reading this story. This is my first story up on and honestly I'm pretty nervous about it. I'm really hoping that someone out there will enjoy it. I plan to have the second chapter out soon, so if you are really interested, be prepared to watch out for it.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: So this is the second chapter. I couldn't believe that I actually finished it this quickly. But at least it's here for some people to read. So I hope you guys enjoy. You're going to get some Merri/Marcus bonding in this chapter and some awkward Merri so be prepared.**

* * *

I yawned as I continued to read my book. I was trying my hardest to relax, but I couldn't stop thinking. I like DATS, and I knew that pretty much everyone there liked me, but I couldn't stop my worries. I couldn't stop thinking that maybe this wasn't the best place for me. Again, I had to get used to this place. Once I got used to this place I would be fine. It was just the actual process that freaked me out.

I placed my bookmark in my book and set it aside. I didn't want to go back to school tomorrow. This must have been what every other teen felt like. I liked Marcus, he was... nice. But the whole entire atmosphere of school killed me. I was surrounded by people I didn't know and probably would never know because I was too much of a nervous wreck and other people didn't seem all that interested in me. Yes I had to work on my social skills, but this was not the way to do it.

Gaomon then came into my room, carrying a tray with a cup of tea on it. He smiled sweetly, almost looking like a cute puppy. I loved Gaomon but yet I couldn't stand to be near him. I felt as if he was my digimon and I knew that he cared about me as much as he cared for Thomas. Him being my digimon felt right. But he wasn't my digimon. He was Thomas'. He could never be mine.

"I brought you some tea." He said taking the cup off of the tray and handing it to me.

I put on another fake smile. "Thank you Gaomon. That's very nice of you."

"You ok Merri?" How did he already find me out?

"Uh... yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well you are getting used to a new place, and you didn't really talk that much at DATS."

"Like you said," I took a sip of my tea, "I'm getting used to a new place."

"I remember the last time you visited. It was about a year ago, you were fourteen. You were so excited about seeing all your friends again. I remember you telling me how much you missed everyone at DATS. But today and yesterday I watched you and you couldn't even look anyone in the eyes."

I sighed. "I don't know Gaomon." I let out a weak laugh, hoping that he would believe that I was okay. "I guess I've changed over the years, huh?"

Gaomon stared at me for a second, and I knew that he didn't believe my little act. "You know, Yoshi really does want to hang out with you. She was so excited to learn that you were coming back to visit. You should try and be a little more social, just so you don't hurt her feelings."

I nodded, mostly because I didn't actually feel like speaking.

Gaomon smiled. "Now enjoy your tea. I'm going to head back downstairs."

Gaomon then left the room, and I stared down at my tea. God, if he only knew that it wasn't that simple.

* * *

Marcus wasn't at school this morning. He was probably skipping. I shouldn't have cared as much as I did. I barely knew the kid. But he was pretty much the only person I talked to all day yesterday and now he was gone. It was weird having an empty spot in front of me, because now the teacher could actually see me.

I began tapping my pencil against my desk, to some rhythm of a song that I had stuck in my head. I was always constantly tapping or moving my hand or mouthing the words to a song. I had a problem, like a major problem that probably couldn't be fixed. It was almost like some nervous twitch that I had. I only did it when I was bored, or when I was trying to relax but didn't have my Ipod.

God this place was boring. I already knew that very well, but I never imagined that it would be this boring. It felt as if I was in this place for hours, but it had only been twenty minutes. I wanted to scream and break free of this place. I was sitting right next to a window. I could probably find a way to simply break the window and then jump out and be free. But that would never happen, mostly because I am a sane person. Or at least saner than most.

Of course today would be awful. It was Tuesday, wasn't it? I hated Tuesdays. Nothing ever happened on Tuesdays. Every other day of the week had something to them, but Tuesday had nothing. Monday was a day that everyone hated. It was like some weekly holiday that everyone celebrated. Wednesday usually had the best primetime tv. Thursday was almost Friday, and Friday was of course Friday. Saturday was everyone's favorite day, and Sunday was for church.

It was all some crazy cycle every single week, to make people like me who actually noticed these sort of things, go insane just trying to figure it out. I always wanted to try and figure out something that could give the day meaning, but then I realized that it had to be something that the whole world could agree with. And when has the world really ever agreed on anything?

Eventually I made it to the end of the day without somehow killing myself in the process. I was actually pretty proud of myself. My day was pretty much exactly like it was yesterday. It was the same exact schedule with the same exact people. Was this how everyday was going to be from now on? As fantastic as that sounded I couldn't really bring myself to be happy about it.

I really wanted to go home and just sleep. But of course I had to go to DATS. There was no time for rest, there were people to talk to! I'm pretty sure that was Thomas' philosophy. Also that you needed to be cool and suave all of the time because you had to be perfect. Being perfect was the only way to survive in this world. At least right now.

I walked outside to see Marcus standing out in the open, seeming to be waiting for me. He smiled right when he saw me, like we were some old friends or something. I found myself also smiling for some reason. Oh god did I... miss him? What? No that wasn't possible. I only knew him for like two days. I couldn't have missed him.

"Hey Merri." Marcus greeted me.

I gave him a slightly irritated look, that I didn't really mean to give. "Where were you this morning?"

He scratched the back of his head. "Oh I was late so I decided to skip first period." He smirked. Why was he smirking? "Why? Did you miss me?"

I shook my head. "No."

He laughed. I couldn't help but notice how his eyes shined when he laughed. His laugh was unique; carefree and soft and it seemed to flow naturally out of his mouth. It was hard to fight and I let out a small giggle. "What do you find so funny?"

Marcus simply let out a crooked smile. "You're a really bad liar."

I became flustered. "I wasn't lying."

"Yeah you were."

I glared at him. "No I wasn't."

"Don't get mad at me just because I caught you."

I crossed my arms. "I'm not mad at you. I'm just mad that my lying hasn't gotten any better."

"Don't feel bad. I'm a pretty bad liar myself."

I really wanted to get off of this subject, mostly because it might have led to me actually having to admit that I missed him. "So are we heading to DATS?"

Marcus seemed to forget that we even needed to leave. "Huh? Oh yeah. Lets head that way."

It was nice outside at this time. The wind was barely blowing and the temperature was perfect. It was always really nice in Japan. It was too cold for me in Austria. Even in the summer time it was freezing for me. I was constantly wearing jackets and long-sleeves to keep me warm. There was nothing more in life that I hated than being cold. You were constantly shaking and shivering and it was just an awful feeling for me.

"So how was your day today?" Was Marcus trying to talk small-talk with me? I was never really that good with small-talk. The things that you would talk about with a person were usually boring and the whole thing just reeked of awkwardness.

"As good as it could get." I answered in a way that I figured he would understand, but to where he wouldn't feel sorry for me.

"I'm really sorry that you have to go to school. I'm gonna be honest. It sucks." He sounded annoyed just by the thought of school. Did everyone seriously hate it this much? At least with me I was just getting used to it, but Marcus had been going his whole life and he still despised it.

"Well that really brings up my spirits." I felt as if sarcasm was appropriate for him. I was a naturally extremely sarcastic person. Only most people didn't respond that well to it. Either they just didn't think it was funny, or they thought that you were being serious. I would have to figure out if Yoshi would be okay with my newly accustomed sense of humor.

"As long as you're actually smart it won't be that hard. You even said that you didn't even listen and you still understood everything." It was true that I was smart, but I wasn't that smart. I was just ahead, mostly because of how easy it was to learn with my home school teacher.

"It's still pretty awful."

"Did you at least make any friends?"

"Why would I miss you if I did?"

"I guess that's true. Sorry." Did I seriously hurt his feelings?

"No it's fine." I did that thing where I would let out a small laugh just to tell people that I was okay. "I'm just an awkward person."

He frowned. "You don't seem that bad."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, you did yell at Thomas yesterday so you're okay with me."

"You really don't like my brother, do you?"

"He always acts as if he's better than me at everything. Even though I know that I'm much stronger than he is." He might have flipped that one guy yesterday, but he definitely wasn't as strong as my brother. I mean, maybe he was, but he definitely didn't have the tactics and actual skill that Thomas had. My brother had beaten olympic champions in the past, just by the way he strategized.

"I admit, he can be an ass sometimes, but I'm pretty sure that you're not stronger than him."

He was shocked. "You saw me beat Kogi. How could you think that he's stronger than me?"

"Didn't you guys actually get in a fight, and it ended in a draw?"

He gritted his teeth together. "Yeah but that was just because I wasn't ready."

"And didn't he win the actual boxing match that was supposed to happen?"

"It wasn't some stupid boxing match, it was a serious fight!" What a baby.

"Don't get all pissy with me just because Thomas technically beat you!"

"Well don't yell at me about it!"

We stood there and stared each other down for a second. He was a stubborn little bastard, wasn't he? The look he was giving me was fierce, which made me even less intimidated by him. Was he taking this seriously? I'm guessing that any fight he got was good enough for him. I wondered if he would actually fight me if I provoked him enough.

I smirked. "Dude calm down. If you really care about beating my brother so much then why don't you just challenge him again?"

He seemed annoyed by my smirking. "I would except that the commander would get angry at me. See me and your brother are supposed to be comrades or something like that."

"Then why don't you stop complaining about him."

He clenched his fist. "Well it sounds like he complains about me. You even said that he called me a blockhead."

I glared at him. "I told him the same exact thing. That he should stop complaining. Supposedly he's smart and you're strong but the two of you can barely handle being stuck with someone you don't like." I wasn't really sure where this anger was coming from. Maybe it was the fact that I had, had a bad day, or that I hadn't gotten in a good argument for a while. All I knew was that this kid was fun to argue with.

He smirked. "In a way aren't you complaining about the two of us. I mean you are yelling at me about it."

I sighed. "You realize that yelling at someone for complaining is not actually complaining?"

"Of course I understand that."

"I don't think you do. I mean you could, if you actually went to school."

"You did miss me, didn't you?"

Was he trying to throw me off? "No I didn't..."

He smirked with cockiness written all over his face. "You totally did."

I felt my face getting red. "Don't think too highly of yourself."

"I'm just speaking the truth."

"The truth is that you're really pissing me off."

He laughed. "You're definitely Thomas' sister."

"Well yeah that's usually how things worked when you've been birthed by the same people."

He chuckled. "You know, you're pretty okay with me."

"Glad to know that I have made it up to being okay." Man it was nice being sarcastic. I hadn't been this sarcastic in a while.

"Just be happy. Most people aren't okay with me."

"Yeah people are annoying. They make _me_ want to become a delinquent."

"Did you just call me a delinquent?"

"Well you are the one who skipped school today and who also gets in fights with kids in his spare time." He gave me an angered look.

I sighed. "Sorry I didn't exactly mean what I said. Sometimes my sarcastic side gets out of hand, you know?"

He wouldn't look at me. "Yeah I get it."

Was he still mad at me or was he just being childish? I couldn't tell. "Seriously I didn't mean it."

"I just really don't like it when people call me a delinquent. It makes me sound like I'm just some awful person."

"Trust me I don't think you're an awful person. If I did I wouldn't try to be funny. I probably wouldn't even talk to you."

He smiled. Good. He was over it. "So now I know when you're mad at me."

"Hopefully I won't ever get mad at you. Or else I might have to beat you up."

"Do you think you could?"

"Maybe one day we'll see."

* * *

I pushed my face into my bag really wanting to just leave. I didn't know where I was going to go, I just wanted to go somewhere. I had always heard that California was a really nice place. It was supposedly it was always really hot down there. But there were plenty of beaches to go to if you got too hot. That sounded really nice.

It was quiet at DATS today, which was strange. Marcus and I arrived to find that only Yoshi was here. I figured that since Thomas didn't have to worry about me that he would have already been here being responsible old him. I probably should have wondered where he was, but I was too tired to really try and think about it. He was probably off doing some other work, or doing research for his job. Whatever it was, he was probably working hard on it.

I felt the quiet and the darkness start to hit me. I was going to fall asleep. I was prepared for it. I wanted it. I didn't care if I began snoring, I was tired and restless. I just wanted some relaxation and rest. Besides Thomas wasn't here to yell at me, so it was perfectly ok for me to do this. Because as long as there was no one to yell at you it was ok. I'm pretty sure young Thomas taught me that.

"Is she asleep?" I heard Yoshi whisper. Was this going to be like in those movies where the main character finds out secrets because people think that they're asleep when they really aren't? Awesome.

"I guess so. Why does it matter?" It was pretty obvious that Marcus couldn't care less.

"I was just wondering." Yoshi then paused for a bit and said, "do you know if she's doing ok?"

"She seems perfectly fine. But she's got a mouth on her. One that I hadn't really seen yesterday."

I'm pretty sure Yoshi smirked. "Did she get a little snarky with you?"

"Snarky? She was about ready to chew my head off."

"Kinda wish she did."

"What is that supposed to mean!?" Jesus these two were fantastic to listen to.

I then heard the doors beginning to open and I quickly brought my head up avoid suspicion. Thomas was walking in with Gaomon, the two of them seeming so professional as they walked in. I shot Marcus a glance, only one, and he was glaring at my brother. I think I made him hate Thomas even more.

I placed my head back down onto my bag and sighed. "So Merri do you have any homework tonight?" I really hoped that this wouldn't be a usual question for him.

"Yeah." I answered simply. Again, I wanted to sleep. I didn't feel like talking. I was tired.

"Shouldn't you be working on it?"

What if I didn't want to? Did you ever think about that Thomas?

"Maybe she can do it later." I heard Yoshi say. "I mean we haven't gotten to go out for coffee yet." I sat up as she turned to me seeming so happy. "Do you want to go?"

"Uh yeah." I didn't really want to go, but I didn't want to hurt Yoshi's feelings. She was being so nice to me and I knew that she just wanted to hang out with me.

She turned to Thomas. "Thomas do you mind?"

He shook his head. "Of course not."

"Great well lets go Merri."

I stood up. "Okay."

* * *

There were so many people everywhere. Like I felt as if I was going to drown in people. Yoshi was beside me seeming as happy as can be. I was jealous of her. She could survive with people. She could handle them. She could easily be social. I wanted to do that. I wanted to be able to actually talk to new people without having a heart attack and then dying a little inside.

"Okay so I guess we can go get coffee first and then maybe go shopping?" I really didn't mind the coffee, but I always hated shopping with other people. When I shopped by myself I could quickly get what I wanted and then leave, but when you were with others you would have to wait for them to finish their shopping. I got bored very easily, and as I was bored I would have to act like I was still having fun.

"Okay." What else was I supposed to say.

"I know this great coffee place a little farther down the block. It's not far from here." Why was she so peppy? Why did she have to be so happy?

"Sounds nice." I said trying to sound pleasant and happy. Though I could use some coffee. Maybe it would wake me up enough to where I could get through this.

We eventually made it to this coffee shop that she promised. It was small but quaint. The inside looked like some normal cafe that you would find anywhere. I looked at the menu and literally the only thing that they sold were coffee products.

Yoshi ordered an iced coffee and I was forced even more out of my comfort zone to ask for a cappuccino. I always hated ordering things. I couldn't really explain but there was just something about having to tell someone that I wanted something that just bothered me. I felt as if they were judging me somehow. I swear if I ever told anybody this they would think that I was crazy.

I followed Yoshi out of the coffee shop where she began telling me about the store she was taking me to. It sounded really... girly. I wasn't the most girliest person in the world. I mean, I had a beanie on my head what kind of girly girl would where something like that. But I had to give it a try. If I didn't buy something Yoshi might have thought that I didn't like her choices in stores or clothing.

When we made it to the store I found that my thoughts were correct. But Yoshi seemed to be happy as she was smiling. She was always smiling. She was always nice. But why? I wanted to know. I wanted know what made her so freaking happy. It didn't make sense to me. I couldn't be happy all the time. I had to fake my happiness all of the time. This was frustrating. This was aggravating. I was done.

The two of us looked through the clothes and Yoshi began holding things up in front of me and showing them to me. "What do you think of this?" She would ask me. I was constantly telling her that whatever she picked up was good and that if she liked it she would get it. She seemed to like all of my responses, thank god.

I picked out some light blue button up shirt and a pair of jeans. They weren't really my style, but they would do to keep Yoshi happy. She seemed to love my choices. I kept smiling. I kept looking happy. I kept fighting my nagging insides telling me to hurry up and find some way out of here. They were seeming to yell at me to just go. I was uncomfortable and my brain didn't like it.

I began pulling money out of my wallet to give to Yoshi, but she refused. "No you don't have to do that. This is my treat."

"But... that wouldn't be fair." Oh god I couldn't let her pay for me. My stuff wasn't really that expensive but I knew that this would haunt me for the rest of my life.

She paid and handed me my stuff. I wasn't really sure what to say except, "thanks."

"No problem. We should do this again sometime."

Did she really have fun with me? "Uh yeah we should."

I got home and fell into bed, finally getting my chance to go to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

I was free. I was finally free. There was absolutely nothing better than riding down the sidewalk on my skateboard, feeling the wind fly in my face as my blonde hair flew freely in the wind. The sky was some pretty shade of pink. I was happy to be out of the house, to where no one was watching over me trying to make sure that I was comfortable. Being here for about a week, I was tired of people trying to make sure that I was ok all of the time. I could only say I was ok so many times.

I was headed to a music store on the outskirts of town. I was hoping to maybe find some rad music there. There would be so many Japanese bands that I probably never heard of in there, which made me even more excited. I loved finding new music on my own. It was like going on my own little adventure or quest for something amazing and fantastic.

The place was a quaint little building that was very nice looking. I looked at it for a second, examining it, before walking inside. There were bells attached to the door, signaling the one cashier that was working to know that I was there. I instantly went to the rock section of the store and began searching through the cds, placing my skateboard down right next to me.

Man this place had completely different kinds of styles than Austria. It was all a bunch of heavy metal and pop-rock. I was really hoping for something a little different. Maybe somethings that didn't involve people screaming or people singing about things that literally everyone else was singing about. Maybe I would have to find some other place or look online and hope that things I wanted were actually available.

Suddenly I heard some commotion seeming to come from the top of the building. The cashier must have heard it too, because he was looking up right along side me. Curious, I made my way outside to investigate. I attempted to look at the top of the building, but there was nothing. Inside it felt as if it the noise came from right above me so I ran to the back to check.

Again there was nothing up there. Maybe whatever it was ran into the woods behind the building. It was a possibility. Or it wasn't really anything, maybe it was just the building settling. But that couldn't have been it. There was something that was moving. I could hear it. The sound was exactly like the pitter-patter of footsteps. It was right over my head, how could I ignore that? It could have just been some cat or some other type of small animal. But the footsteps sounded so big I swear it had to be some sort of large animal. Maybe it was Spiderman practicing his web-slinging skills...

I heard something move behind me, like it just jumped down from something. I turned around and froze. The thing was some kind of giant spider like thing. Okay when I said Spiderman that didn't mean I wanted an actual spider to show up. It instantly lunged at me, pushing me to the ground. I had to hold it back with my hands, as it tried to bite at my face. I punched it right in the face and then kicked it to get it as far away from me as possible.

I ran into the wooded area, not really sure what to do. That thing had to be a digimon. It had to be. I hid behind a tree that I was sure could hide me. I needed to stay calm. I needed to think things through. I needed to strategize. But that was hard when I all I could hear was my heavy breathing and that digimon making strange noises, that I guessed were growls. I looked around to see if there was anything I could use to protect myself. I spotted a branch, a pretty thick one at that, sitting on the ground next to a tree a few feet away. If I went to grab it, I would risk that thing seeing me, but if I just sat here I risked that thing eventually finding me, and then not having any sort of defense what-so-ever. I chose the former.

Running was never really my strong suit, but I felt faster than ever as I aimed right for that branch. It was in my hand when I turned around to see that thing looking me right in the eyes, which was strange because that thing didn't even seem to have any sort of eyes on it. It ran right towards me with its creepy looking legs. I swung the branch back as if it was some sort of bat, and right when the thing lunged at me for the second time, I smacked it right in the face.

The thing fell back probably more in shock than just pain. I imagine I didn't cause that much damage. It was up as fast as it was down, and seemed really pissed off. It was already headed right for me and I swung the branch back again, preparing myself for it not to work this time. Luckily it did, giving me enough time to start running again. I could hear the things footsteps behind. My heart was pounding and I felt my un-athletisim catching up to me. My breathing was already becoming erratic. No way was I letting this thing get me. I was not about to become some wild digimon's dinner. At some point I would have to turn around and hit it again, before it could actually catch up to me.

"C'mon Agumon!" Was that Marcus? I could understand that yell from anywhere. I was really hoping that the digimon would give up on me, but it didn't even seem to care about Marcus. I must have really pissed it off. Maybe the branch wasn't the best idea.

"Marcus!" I yelled before making the decision that I was really tired of running. I quickly turned around and swung the branch instantly hitting the thing right on the forehead.

"Merri?" Oh thank god he heard me. The thing lunged at me again and easily knocked me down this time. The thing opened it's mouth seeming to be ready to eat me. I took my branch and held it over my face. The branch landed in it's mouth, and the thing chewed on it ready to pounce on me. It was right over my face, and I screamed out of complete and utter fear.

"Pepper breath!" The thing was then hit with a fireball and was knocked off of me. It rolled about twice and I instantly jumped up, trying to catch my breath.

It was Agumon and Marcus. "Merri, are you ok?" Marcus knelt down next to me as I attempted to not have a heart attack or stroke. Okay I seriously think I pissed my pants.

I nodded, not really being able to make out actual words. I heard the digimon growl and looked over to see it jump back up. It was looking right at me, its mouth frothing. Did it seriously want to eat me? Marcus hit his fist into his hand seeming way to excited. The digimon ran at me and Marcus jumped in front of me. Was he seriously this stupid?

I backed up involuntarily, watching Marcus' face change into a smirk. Right when the digimon jumped at him, he brought up his fist and punch it right in the face. Did he seriously just punch a digimon without even looking a bit scared? An orange sort of aura appeared on his hand and he instantly pulled out that same digivice thing that Thomas had.

He struck his hand on the top of it and screamed, "DNA charge!"

I watched in awe as Agumon began glow and grew about ten times his size. It was incredible to watch. Eventually he grew to be GeoGreymon. The spider-like digimon now realized what he was up against and began to run.

"Mega flame!" GeoGreymon screamed and spit out a giant flame out of his mouth. It hit the digimon and he was instantly wiped out. He deterialized into a black egg that fell to the ground.

I stood there in shock of what I just witnessed as GeoGreymon turned back into Agumon and high-fived Marcus. I realize that this was their job but I was not ready for this. I was not prepared to get attacked by a random digimon today and have my life saved by Marcus who seemed psychotically excited about the appearance of a digimon that was about ready to kill me.

Marcus picked up the egg and smirked. "Man this thing was mad at you."

I finally got back to some sensible breathing. "I kind of hit it in the face a lot."

He smiled. "Well you did a good job protecting yourself. From what I saw you seemed to put up a fight."

"I really didn't want to be the thing's meal."

"Thomas and Yoshi are on their way. I was just the closest one by."

I sighed and put my hand to my forehead. "Thomas is going to freak."

I sat on the ground and continued to try and breathe. Marcus and Agumon sat beside me, Agumon staring at me with a worried look on his face. "Merri are you okay?"

"Meh I'm pretty sure she's fine. She probably just sassed the digimon to wear it out."

I considered smacking Marcus with the branch. "You don't know how much work I just did. I'm extremely un-athletic. It feels like I just ran a marathon and then did some push-ups and then some sit-ups. I don't need any kind of talk from you."

He snickered. "You still have enough energy to tell me off."

I moaned in anger and frustration as he chuckled. He was in such a good mood after destroying a digimon for me. Good for him that he wasn't having a mental panic attack. I put my face in my hand, still trying to recover. All I wanted was a nice and calm day out after a full week of school. That was all I wanted out of life, just one goddamn day.

Marcus brought his face down to mine and said, "if you're not okay, you can tell me."

I was fine. I was fucking fine. "I'm just a little freaked out, that's all."

"So what exactly happened?"

I gestured in the direction of the building. "I was just in that music store and heard some footsteps on the roof. I guess I was feeling stupid so I went outside to see what it was. It was that stupid digimon. It attacked me and I guess me defending myself really pissed it off."

"Well it's gone now. It's not going to attack you again."

I groaned. "But I'm not worried about that!" I hit my fist against my leg. My anger was taking over me. "I'm just mad that I couldn't take care of that thing by myself. I tried my hardest but I couldn't stop that thing from trying to kill me. Everytime I hit it, I only knocked it down for like a second, and then it was up again ready to attack me. I seriously couldn't do anything that was actually effective..."

"Merri you stopped that thing from hurting you!" Marcus interrupted me.

"But I didn't just want to stop that thing for a second I wanted to stop it forever. I wanted to be able to defeat it. You don't understand, you can do that. You have a digimon. You, Thomas, and Yoshi all have digimon!"

Agumon stood up out of worry. "Boss." He quietly said.

I buried my face into my hands to try and hide it. I knew he was looking at me with sympathy, I knew he was. I didn't want to look up. I pretty much just had some kind of mental breakdown. This was fantastic. This was great. Man this guy was gonna want to be friend after this for sure. Where was Thomas? I was ready to leave and never come back.

"Merri..." Marcus obviously wasn't sure what to say. He was probably thinking, 'oh god this girl is crazy.'

"I'm sorry." I muttered into my hands.

"I think I understand. You want to be strong, huh?"

I sighed. "Not exactly. I just want to be able to take care of myself."

He nodded. "Trust me I get it."

I took my hands off of my face, but didn't look up. I just wanted to go die in a hole. Maybe it would have been better if that digimon had eaten me. It would make me feel a lot better about myself. I looked at my hands, and the knuckles on my right hand were torn up from when I hit that thing. The inside of my hands were scraped and scratched up from how tightly I was holding onto that branch.

"My hands hurt." I murmured.

Marcus smirked. "I'm sure you'll survive."

I brought my head up and sighed. "Nope I'm gonna die."

"You're gonna die?" Marcus questioned me.

I smirked slightly. "Yep. Right here. Right now."

"Boss if she dies I don't think Thomas will be that happy." Agumon curiously pointed out.

Marcus rested his arm on Agumon's head. "Don't worry. I'm pretty sure she is going to make it. I wouldn't take everything this girl says seriously."

"Marcus!" I heard Yoshi yell.

I stood up and stretched before saying, "are you ready to see Thomas flip?"

Marcus stood up along with me. "Yeah. I guess."

We made our way out of the woods, which made me realize how far I had actually ran. I never thought I would be able to run that far in my entire life. We finally made it out, only to see Thomas spot me and run at me.

"Merri, what are you doing here?"

"That freaking digimon attacked me. I'm okay though."

Marcus pointed at himself proudly. "I saved her, so you better thank me Tommy."

Thomas literally looked as if he was about to punch Marcus right in the mouth so he could never speak again. "Good to know Marcus."

"Just be happy that she's okay Thomas." Yoshi said as she walked up to Marcus and took the egg from him.

"Look I'm just ready to go home, okay?" I said to Thomas.

"Alright. Do you know where your skateboard is?"

I then realized that it was still inside the shop, so I ran inside to retrieve it. Thank god it was perfectly okay and hadn't really been tampered with. The cashier gave me a strange look as I grabbed my skateboard and instantly left the shop. He was probably really hoping I was going to buy something.

When I came out they were all already in the DATS car waiting for me. Yoshi and Thomas were in the front, so I went to the back and took the seat behind Yoshi. Agumon was in the middle seat, taking up most of the room.

"Agumon, I think you should get back in your digivice. You're taking up all of the room." Marcus said in an annoyed tone.

"But I don't want to boss. It's stuffy in there."

"Well it's stuffy in here." Marcus then held up his digivice and sent Agumon into it.

At least there was more room, but Agumon's complaining was sadly an annoying noise that probably wouldn't go away anytime soon. As we began our descent, I stared out the window, watching us slowly enter back into the city. I put my headphones in, listening to whatever song I could find that would get my mind off of things. I figured when I did that someone would try to talk to me. I felt kind of bad, but I didn't really want to talk right now anyways.

Man I was an asshole. Why did people put up with me? All I ever did was make sarcastic remarks, if I could even do that. God I needed to stop being so down on myself. I just needed to stop everything. Someone one day would probably think I was cool, right? Hopefully.

I leaned my head against the window and sighed. I could see Marcus taking glances at me out of the corner of my eye. I really needed out of this car before I became car sick or suddenly became extremely claustrophobic. It had only been a week so far. I was still getting used to things.

The trip to the house felt like it was hours, just like one period at school. I was ready to jump out of the car and run to the house, but Thomas felt the need to speak. "I'm gonna head back to DATS with everyone. Will you be okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah I can survive."

"I'm gonna walk you up to the house." Marcus got out of the car with me, and I could see Thomas' face already light up with a look of 'I'm gonna punch you in the face before you even have a chance.'

Marcus simply ignored his look as he waited for me to walk around the car to meet with him on the sidewalk. He sent me a smile, but I couldn't really bring myself to fake one back. He looked down realizing that he had been rejected.

"I'm sorry I'm being such a jerk." I said, dragging my skateboard behind me, barely gripping because of how badly my hand hurt.

"It's fine."

"I'm also sorry that I had some mental break. I can't really promise that it won't happen again, but I'll try."

"You don't need to apologize."

I ignored his comment. "I promise I'll be in a better mood on Monday. We'll argue a little bit more okay?"

He nodded. "Okay. As long as you start it."

I couldn't help but smile. "It's a deal." We stopped on my porch and I held out my hand. "Shake on it?"

He looked into my eyes and I never realized how... pretty his eyes were. His eyes were a hazel color, that seemed to just have some natural glow to them. He shook my hand, seeming to take our silly deal seriously. He then let go and began to head back to the car. "See you Monday."

"Uh yeah." I said quickly probably sounding extremely awkward.

* * *

**Author's Note: I am really enjoying writing this story. I know it probably isn't the best thing out there, but I think it's going well. The first part of this story is mostly going to be building relationships and all that fun stuff but eventually we will get into the plot of the show and how Merri fits into it. This story is taking place a little bit after Thomas' return to Japan, if that tells you where we are in the series. So I hope you guys enjoy how this story goes and make sure to review so I know what you guys think. **


	4. Chapter 4

"Hello?" My voice was mix of confusion and annoyance. Who was calling me at ten-thrity at night? It was probably some stupid telemarketer who wanted me to buy one of their products. God they were always so annoying and they would always call me at the worse times. I always enjoyed the times when I would get to mess with them.

I answered the phone, expecting some voice that was too perfect for the phone. "Is this my little Merri who I have missed?" But instead, I heard that same old bright and perky voice that I hadn't heard in so long.

"Shannon!" I sat up actually smiling. Shannon was my old childhood friend. We would hang out during the summer, running around and being mindless children. We didn't have any cares or worries in the world, life was just about having fun. She was my best friend, the one that I always went to for advice or to tell all of my secrets to or to just have fun with.

"The one and only." I could imagine her with her giant grin, being so happy that I was excited that she had called. Lately, it was her life's goal to make me happy. Before I left, she was always trying her hardest to create the best jokes just so I could laugh.

"Why the hell are you calling me at ten-thirty?"

"Dude it's like three here in Austria, where you should still be." I hadn't really thought of the time change that had occurred. I had gotten so used to it by now, that I just forgot that Shannon was still in the old time zone.

I frowned. "I'm sorry that I couldn't stop my father from almost kicking me out of the house." It was either move in with your brother, or actually go out and socialize. Of course I chose the latter.

"I know but it's been sooooo boring here. No one here gets my jokes. Do you know how horrible it is for me to go a day without having at least one person thinking that I'm funny?" I laughed. I missed her so much. Just hearing her speak was enough to make me forget about Monday and all of the things that were to occur. I missed her jokes, and her the pleasant air that she always had around her.

"Don't worry no one here gets my jokes either. I'm pretty sure my brother is already tired of me."

She snorted. "Shut up stupid. Your brother absolutely loves you. Even if you punched him in the face, he would still think you were the best."

I shook my head, not believing a word she said. I'm pretty sure if I did punch him in the face, he would get mad at me. "I don't need any of this pep-talk. It's not going to change my mind."

"Just take the compliment. Jesus what is going on over there that's put you in such a bad mood?" Did she forget that I was always in a bad mood? Wasn't that what her constant joking was for?

"School, Shannon. School. I now understand why you were always in such a bad mood when you visited me in the evenings of the week days. Tomorrow's Monday. I don't wanna go." She would always walk into my house, with this pissed off look on her face. One day she came over ranting about some stupid girl who had annoyed her the entire day. I always thought she was just making a big deal out of things. I was wrong.

"Stop complaining." I didn't see that coming from her.

"I haven't complained to anyone the whole time I've been here," I tried to explain, "you were always the one that I complained to," I then remembered the time, not so long ago, when I yelled at Marcus for complaining, "God I'm such a hypocrite. I'm an awful person."

She snickered. "Who are you yelling at now? I mean, you don't have Dawson to take out all of your anger on, so who is it?"

"He's much better than Dawson." I assured her. Dawson was some guy that Shannon was into at one point, and I could never understand why, because he was an idiot. I was always constantly teasing him and messing with him. I even told him once that I was watching him like a hawk, and he asked me what kind, and I told him the bird kind.

"Who is he?" She sounded a little too interested.

"I guess he is my friend?" I still wasn't sure about it. Did Marcus consider us friends? I wasn't even sure if I considered us friends. I mean, I barely knew the kid. Yeah I saw him pretty much everyday at school, and we usually always had our stupid, petty arguments, but I mean did that really mean that we were friends?

"You guess? How can you not know?"

"I don't know, I just don't. It's all very confusing."

"Well what's his name?" Again, she seemed _way _ to interested in this. Was this really that big of a deal to her?

"What are you planning on doing? Running some background check on him?"

"My dad is a cop so it is a possibility."

She sounded so serious which made me laugh. "His name is Marcus Damon." I said, wondering if she did actually run a background check what she would find out about him. I imagine he had probably been arrested a few times for fighting. I could already see him getting taken away by the cops as he was still trying to beat up the other guy that he was fighting.

"Is he nice?"

"He's a little sassy, but nothing I can't handle." I practically sassed him every single freaking day, and everyday I told him I was going to beat him up.

She laughed. "I Imagine you are much sassier than him."

I nodded. "You are correct. I was able to shut him up in about five seconds flat yesterday. I was pretty proud of myself actually."

"Is he cute?" Oh. Okay. Though I should have expected all of these questions from her.

I became flustered. "I don't know. I mean... I guess. Maybe." I had never really thought of Marcus even close to that kind of way. I imagine Shannon just wanted to know if I was actually attracted to someone. I was never really one to notice someone like that, as easily as others.

She giggled. "You're adorable. But seriously, do you think you could set a bro up?"

Oh. My. God. "Seriously?"

"Dawson is an idiot, Lewis misses you, the big baby, and this stupid guy keeps texting me and I just need someone here Merri. I need someone here for me." At least she finally realized that Dawson was a dumbass, but what I was really worried about was that Lewis missed me...

I couldn't stop my laughing from her comment. "Marcus could probably beat the shit out of the creepy guy for you."

"Good. Fly him up here for me. I will pay him one-hundred dollars." She sounded so serious, which made me laugh even more. "This is no laughing matter I'm being serious. Get him up here. I will even help him fall in love with you just get someone up here for me."

I calmed down, sort of freaked out by what she said. "I don't think I need that kind of help."

"Then what kind of help do you need?" She asked, intrigued.

"I want to go home. Just get me some transportation and a place to live and I will bring Marcus with me and the two of us will use teamwork to kill the guy who won't leave you alone. We won't even need weapons. Marcus can just kill him and then I can hide his body in the woods. It's perfect. There's no flaws in this plan."

"Absolutely none." She agreed.

"Then it's settled. When is the plane coming to pick us up?" Were we seriously having a conversation about this?

"Thursday. Five o'clock. My SWAT team will be there to pick you up, keep you two safe. You will be dropped off at my house, and I will give you the information about the target. You will not speak to me or look at me. You will simply take the folder with the information and leave and complete your mission." It was as if I was actually taking up some super-secret spy mission. It was like I was James Bond.

"Excellent."

* * *

"Marcus why do I have to come to your house tonight? Kristy's birthday isn't until tomorrow." Thomas seemed to still be in shock after the things that had occurred today. Marcus was seriously an idiot. Did he really think that kissing-up to Thomas in one of the saddest attempts I had ever seen was really going to work?

"Yeah. I know why I'm here, but why does Thomas have to be here?" I asked. I was here to help Marcus study. The poor thing barely knew how to do simple word problems, let alone full out geometry. I really didn't want him to miss out on his sister's birthday just because he had to take some stupid test. If only he had actually studied the first time. I studied very casually and I passed with flying colors.

Agumon happily replied. "Kristy can be tough so we wanted her to approve you first."

"Tough? It's a good thing I haven't said yes to this assignment yet." Thomas actually seemed kind of happy to be here. It was probably just him being polite as usual.

Marcus led us inside. "Don't worry, she's not that bad. C'mon in." We walked inside. "I'm home!"

Marcus' house was a nice and quaint little house. It was much smaller than any house I ever lived in, which kind of added some charm to it. It was just a simple house in the suburbs. It wasn't some giant house with so many floors and rooms that you could easily get lost if you didn't know your way around. It seemed like a much nicer place to live. Only two stories, with still enough room to have your own personal space.

The three of us and Marcus' family all met in the kitchen, with his little sister Kristy so happy that Thomas was there. Did she have a crush on my brother? Oh God. "Oh hi again!" She greeted Thomas with the biggest grin on her face. This was actually pretty adorable. She couldn't take her eyes off of him. It was as if he was some angel in her eyes. Jesus Christ I couldn't take it, it was so cute.

Kristy reminded me so much of Relena. She had the same happy face as when Relena got to see Thomas. She seemed to be about the same age as Relena, and was about the same size. But she could actually get excited, and could probably actually run around and have fun like a normal kid. This place was starting to really depress me.

"I'm Thomas H. Norstein, and this is my sister Merri." Thomas greeted Marcus' mother. I kept on my happy and pleasant face, because, well, Marcus' family seemed way to nice for me to be in any sort of bad mood. "Sorry for my rudeness the other day when we met by my car."

"Oh no worries." Marcus' mom sounded so nice. "So tell me are you and Marcus good friends?"

"Uh yeah." Thomas answered reluctantly.

Marcus' mother then looked down at me. "And Merri are you Marcus' girlfriend?"

I froze. I wasn't really even sure I could respond to that. Marcus, of course, freaked. "She's not my girlfriend mom, she's here to help me study."

His mom smiled at us. "Alright." She then walked over to the kitchen table like nothing had even happened. Did she even realize that she had just embarrassed her own son and his... um acquaintance?

After the awkwardness, Marcus turned to his sister. "So Thomas is going to be hanging out with you on your birthday tomorrow. He's going to take my place until I get back. Isn't that great?"

Kristy gasped. "Yeah. Alright I'm so happy." Thomas better fucking make this little girl's dreams come true tomorrow, or else I might have to actually punch him in the face. Though even if Thomas did somehow mess up, she would probably still love him like he was the best thing in the world.

Eventually all the plans had been made and Thomas left. Now came the boring and frustrating part of the evening of trying to help Marcus study. Was it even possible to try and get this kid to actually study? I guessed no as we headed upstairs to his room, with Agumon tailing closely behind us. While I was carrying my geometry book, Marcus opened up the door to his room and turned on the light. Surprisingly, it was clean. I imagined I would walk in seeing a giant mess of a room. Though Marcus' mother probably made sure he kept it clean. She seemed like one of those moms who was extremely nice, but would probably yelled at their child when they needed to a good scolding. I imagined rasing Marcus took a lot of hard work.

"So boss, what are you guys studying?" Agumon curiously. He was always asking questions, wasn't he? He was like some naïve child. He seemed to be confused all of the time, but it was somehow cute on him. The way he would always ask 'boss' and never anyone else with all of the questions he had. He looked up to Marcus so much.

"Geometry." Marcus said with a sigh, plopping down onto his bed. I could tell that he really did not want to do any of this 'studying' business.

I sat down next to him. "It's not that bad." I assured him. "Once you figure it out, you'll be fine."

"Easy for you to say. You're smart."

I smirked. It was as if all you needed to do was have some common sense, and you were instantly smart to Marcus. "I'm not that smart. I've already told you that."

"But boss, you're the smartest guy I know." Agumon happily said.

I laughed, not being able to take what Agumon said seriously. "Oh my goodness Agumon, I think you need to get to know more people."

Marcus glared at me. "What is that supposed to mean?"

I glared right back. "That little stunt you pulled earlier wasn't the smartest thing you've done. In fact, it was extremely dumb. Did you seriously think kissing-up to Thomas was gonna work?"

"What else did you expect me to do?" It was as if he had no other options. He literally had so many other options other than the one he chose. If he had just put a little thought into it, he could have thought of something logical.

"I could've asked for you. It would have been so simple that way." It definitely would have made things a lot easier, for both him and Thomas. I would have actually been able to easily get Thomas on his side.

Marcus crossed his arms. "He still said yes, so I guess I didn't do that bad."

"I guess you didn't." I began to open my book. "So what are we gonna start with?"

Marcus laid back onto his bed and sighed. "I don't wanna."

"Huh?" I began to yell. "But you're the one that invited me over here so I could help you!" I did enjoy hanging out with Marcus, but I could have been home right now either reading a new book that I had bought or talking to Shannon on the phone.

He moaned. "But I don't want to study. Don't make me."

"Ugh. You're such a baby."

He sat up quickly, wanting to prove me wrong. "I'm not a baby!"

"C'mon Marcus. You can't even bring yourself to study, something that you really need to do."

"Fine." He took the book right out of my hands. "I'll study."

I flicked him on the forehead. "Ow!" He screamed. Again, he was such a baby.

"Don't take things out of my hands!"

"Ugh. Why are you so mean to me?"

I smirked. "Because we are friends." I then realized what I said, and my cheeks began to flare. Why did I just say? Jesus Christ no. All of these thoughts of trying to figure out had just made me look like some idiot. Marcus probably thought I was obsessed with him. I didn't want him to think that. Because I wasn't. I would never be obsessed with him. That would just be weird.

"Uh yeah. We are friends." Marcus smiled. I was still blushing. Was I hearing right, or was this just my brain playing a dirty trick on me? "Um are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." I quickly said, hoping he wouldn't notice me freaking out on the inside. Hopefully it wasn't showing on the outside. "Now let's start studying."

We got about twenty minutes into studying, before Marcus seemed to give up and fell back onto the bed. I sighed. Was I seriously this boring? I looked down to the floor, to see Agumon asleep on the ground. Great. I was that boring. I considered hitting him in the stomach, since I could have easily done it, but I realized that he was probably tired and frustrated. I actually felt kind of bad for him.

I fell back next to him. "Are you already done?"

He nodded. "Can we stop now?"

"We've barely even done anything." I stated. "C'mon let's keep going. I promise that it isn't that hard. We still have lots of things to cover."

He shook his head. "No."

"You're impossible." I sighed.

He rolled over and moaned. "I'm gonna fail this test so badly."

I patted him on the back. "I'm gonna be honest with you buddy, you probably are. I'm not going to bullshit you, telling you that you'll do great, because I've always found that kind of mean." I remember once that Shannon told Lewis that he was probably going to do great at his speech that he had to read the next day of school, but instead of actually being able to read it, he couldn't say anything. He was so angry when I saw him.

"I don't know if I should thank you or get mad at you." He muttered.

"What ever you wanna do, I won't get mad." I stared up at the ceiling, listening to the silence that was slowly taking up the room. I never really found silence that big of a deal. Everyone got so freaked out about it. It was as if silence would be the death of them. I actually loved the silence, it was just so nice and peaceful, especially when you were with another person. There was just something about laying with someone and just being quiet that was just a really excellent occurence.

I considered breaking the silence, to tell Marcus about our new secret mission given to me by Shannon, but I was worried that he would think I was some weirdo. God I was always worried. What didn't I worry about? It was an annoying constant in the back of my mind, something that would never go away. It was as if something was set up in the back of my mind, only there to trigger my worrying when something so simple came across my mind.

Marcus then lazily sat up and looked at Agumon. "Man, he's out like a light."

I sat up on my elbows. "Yeah."

He looked to his balcony, staring at it for a second. "Do you wanna go sit outside? I'm pretty sure it's nice out there."

"Uh yeah sure."

I followed him out there, and he was right, it was nice outside. We sat down and I couldn't help but stare up at the sky. It was beautiful. The sky was bright with its orange and pink colors in it. The sun was starting to set, and I could already see the moon in the sky. I looked over to Marcus, and he was staring up at the sky as well. Even though he was a little down about his test, he still looked pretty happy. Maybe he was... cute. A little bit, maybe. I mean, as I looked at him right now, he was extremely good looking.

That thought stunned every single inch of my brain, the same thought of when Shannon smacked me in the back of the head that one day that I made an extremely inappropriate joke. Why would I think of him like that? What the hell was wrong with me? I had only known this guy for about two weeks. I should not have been thinking of him that way, especially considering the fact that he would probably never think of me like that.

And that wasn't just me being down on myself... it was something that usually happened with me. Shannon was always bringing guys around with her, because I honestly seemed to be the only girlfriend that she had, and every single time that I actually became interested in one of her friends, he was never even remotely interested in me. Even my old friend Lewis who had been friends with Shannon and I ever since the day we met, had never even looked at me twice. And to think I had the biggest crush on him for so long.

I needed to get rid of the thoughts in the back of my mind, that kept telling me that Marcus was cute. Being in some one-sided crush with a guy was an extreme no-no. I mean, that was pretty much my whole relationship with Lewis. I didn't want that to happen again. I didn't want to just give my hopes up for some guy who would probably never even have the same feelings for me.

"Why are you staring at me?" Oh my god had I seriously been staring at Marcus this entire time? No no no no no no no. It definitely would have been better if that digimon would have eaten me. Or if Shannon really did get an airplane to fly me back to Austria. Or if I just jumped off of this balcony.

"I'm not." I turned my head away back to the sky trying not to let Marcus see my red face.

"Yeah you were!" He yelled at me, seeming to know exactly what he was looking at. How long had I been staring at him? Hopefully it wasn't that long, for him to think that I was some crazy nut-job or something.

"No I wasn't. You don't know anything. I mean obviously you don't or else you would've actually passed that test." Sarcasm. Sarcasm would save me. Sarcasm saved me in any situation that I was in. Unless... it was a situation that didn't have to do with anyone that I was sure that I could beat in an argument.

"Don't try to change the subject." He demanded.

"I'm not trying to change the subject, Marcus!" I was gonna smack him. If I smacked him maybe I would actually be able to act like I was okay. Maybe that would take his mind off of the fact that he had caught me in the awkwardness of me staring at him.

"Your lying hasn't gotten any better." He actually thought he was being smart with his quick quips of sarcasm. Though, I always thought I was being smart with my own. It didn't matter, I was angry at him right now.

I moaned out of anger. He chuckled, not being able to contain himself. "Man, I am glad that you are so happy. God I really hope you don't pass that test."

He glared at me, but it was obvious in his facial expression that he knew I was joking. Or at least I hoped he knew I was joking. "We are no longer friends."

"Don't say that. You would miss me." I snarked. He probably would never miss me if I just went up and disappeared. The only person that I actually knew that missed me was Shannon, only because she actually felt the need to call me.

"I'm pretty sure I can survive without you. It would be you that would miss me."

I blocked off the voice in my head saying that he was probably right and simply shook my head. "Nope. Not at all. I would totally survive." I told him, and somewhat telling myself the exact same thing. I could definitely survive without him, right?

He crossed his arms. "Alright. Fine."

He turned his head away from me and I let out a quiet giggle. Did I just giggle at this guy's joke? Man this dude was really getting to me. What was I doing? What was I thinking? Obviously I was not in a correct state of mind. I probably just didn't get enough sleep last night. Yeah that was it. Shannon kept me up _way _to late last night.

As I mentally yelled at myself for my idiocy, Marcus crossed his legs and smiled. "I'm pretty sure you know that I'm not just going to simply ignore you."

I actually felt a little relieved by his last comment. "Yeah I was pretty worried about it." I smirked.

He got into my face slowly and whispered. "But admit it, you were staring at me." Stupid obnoxious bastard.

I groaned and pushed his face away from mine forcefully, knocking him over. "Are you ever going to let that go?"

He quickly sat up and pushed me over as well, causing my head hitting the ground. "Nope."

I sat up and glared at him. He was going to get it. There was going to be blood. Blood and pain. Maybe murder. "What am I gonna do with you?"

He gave an actual scared look. Oh my god, I was actually scaring him. I was seriously scaring the brave and courageous Marcus Damon. "I don't know."

I then pushed him over, with even more force this time, making me fall onto his chest. I raised my hand to smack him on the forehead, but he grabbed my hand to hold me back. He was laughing the whole time. I'm pretty sure he wasn't even aware of what damage I was considering to give him. I gritted my teeth and tried to pull my hand away. Goddamnit let go you stupid bastard.

"Let go!" I screamed. I was becoming extremely irritated.

"No." He simply responded. "Or else you're going to hit me."

"Yeah I'm going to hit you." Wasn't that obvious. I was literally only a few millimeters away from his forehead, before he grabbed my hand. Goddamn him and his quick fighter reflexes.

He snickered. "No you're not. I'm not going to let you." Oh he seemed to have no idea of what I was capable of when I became angry. Though I was still having fun with this the whole time. This was it, I was going to beat up the marvelous Marcus Damon.

I sat up and raised my other hand and landed my fist right on his forehead. "Jesus Christ Merri!" Marcus screamed, out of pain that I somehow seemed to cause him. Maybe fighting that digimon had made me a little tougher than what I first thought.

He let go of my hand, only holding onto it with one, and grabbed onto my other one. He pushed me up off of him and sat us both up. I again tried to get my hands free, but was unsuccessful. He glared at me. "Don't hit me." He sounded so serious, but I couldn't take him seriously.

I shook my head. "No. You made me angry." I then noticed what was on his forehead, and I tried to hold back my laughter. There was a giant red mark on his forehead.

"What are you laughing at?" He demanded, still holding onto my hands.

I could barely get it out. "There's a red mark on your forehead. I'm really sorry." I busted out into laughter. The mark was bright red, like some fire had started right on his forehead. I honestly didn't mean to hit him that hard. I just wanted to hit him hard enough to get the message.

He tried not to, but he began to laugh along with me. His grip on my hands loosened, and I quickly took advantage of this situation, and pulled my hands away from him. He instantly realized his mistake and reached for my hands again. I held my hands behind me, to try and hide them. He reached his hands behind me, and I pushed my foot into his chest to hold him back.

"No Marcus!" I yelled at him.

"I'm not going to lose!" He replied.

"Oh so this is some sort of serious fight for you?" I thought this was just some stupid fight that we were getting into, but of course, Marcus always had to win any fight that he had gotten into.

He nodded. "Of course."

I snickered, not really being able to bring myself to believe him. "Seriously?"

"Ugh I'm going to get you." The bright-eyed brunette seemed disgruntled.

"Go ahead and try." I was determined to beat him. I honestly wanted to win this stupid fight that I had gotten myself into.

Marcus again tried his hardest to get my hands, and I fell back as I fought to hold him back. He pushed my foot down to the floor and climbed on top of me. He was on top of me, like completely over me. Our faces were _extremely_ close together. I paused and gave him an awkward look, as he continued to try and get me. He then realized what was happening, and he backed away, with the most embarrassed looking face.

"I... I'm sorry." He said not looking me in the face.

I sat up and brought my hands back in front of me. "It's fine. I mean, you didn't mean to."

"Uh yeah." He laughed awkwardly. "Let's go back inside."

"Um okay."

We went back inside and I suddenly felt awkward being in his room, with only a sleeping Agumon in there. How could he have not woken up with all of that noise that we were making? Marcus went over to his bed and picked up my book and handed it to me. "So are you going to stay for dinner? My mom makes the best fried eggs."

"I wouldn't really want to impose..."

"I'm pretty sure my mom would be fine with it." He grinned. "She loves cooking."

"No. I'm pretty sure Thomas wants me home as soon as I can go." I honestly just didn't want to stay. I felt awkward now. I wasn't really sure how I should act now that Marcus had caught me staring and him and he was _literally on top of me _just a few seconds ago. I mean, what was I supposed to do. I realize that Marcus was just trying to make pleasant conversation with me as he was probably also trying to forget about what just happened, but I would never be able to forget.

"Oh um, okay. So I guess you should be getting home." He actually seemed disappointed. Why would he sound so disappointed? Did he really want me to stay? No I was probably wrong. It was just me having my crazy fantasies of some guy actually wanting to be around me. That's not how it worked. It would never work that way with me. I needed to stop giving my hopes up with these things.

"Uh yeah." I could barely speak. God I was just going to get myself hurt. I needed to stop these stupid thoughts in my head. Marcus was an idiot. He was not, in any way attractive. He was a blockhead, a definite blockhead.

Marcus led me back downstairs, leaving Agumon in his room to continue the nice nap that he must have definitely been enjoying. He opened the front door for me, and I walked one step out the door and turned around to Marcus. "So I guess I'll see you tomorrow, since you'll certainly be at school."

"Yeah, I'm _so_ excited about it." He replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes in the process.

I smirked. "I'm sure you are."

Marcus looked to the sky, taking a second to just stand there and stare at it. I looked to it to see what he was looking at. It was beginning to get dark. "It's starting to get dark. Do you want me to walk you home?"

I turned back to him. "Do you not think that I can take care of myself?" I questioned him. "I mean, I did leave a giant red mark on your forehead just a few seconds."

"I don't care." He stated. Yep, he was still taking our little fight too seriously. "I'll take you down."

"Fine!" I screamed, and then decided to make a joke that Shannon and I always made when we got into little arguments. "Meet me in the ring! Saturday! Four o'clock! Wrestlemania!" I couldn't keep a straight face while trying to say that one phrase.

Marcus instantly began cackling. Thank god, it was just the response that I wanted. Shannon and I could never be serious when we made that joke, no matter how many times we said it. "Alright. I will easily be able to take you down!"

I began to walk away from the house. "Alright, but you better be there! If you're not, then I will tell everyone that the marvelous and grand Marcus Damon is a little wimp!"

"I will most definitely be there! Saturday! Four o'clock!" He repeated seeming to tell me that he definitely knew exactly where he needed to go for this astounding fight that was most definitely going to happen.

I laughed as I kept walking away. Ok I will admit it, I was falling for this stupid kid. He got my joke. He laughed at it, and thought it was funny, and even went along with it. He actually made me feel some sort of happiness. Like I was able to have fun with him. I still had some sort of my worries with him, but not as many as I usually did with other people. It was as if we had made some instant connection. It made me smile, an extremely wide smile as I made my way home.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: Sorry this chapter took so long to upload, but I was really trying to make it a good chapter. It honestly took me awhile to figure out what I actually wanted to do with this chapter, but I eventually figured it out. I hope you guys enjoy and please leave some reviews so I know what you guys think about this story.  
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* * *

I pushed the eraser of my pencil into my desk, trying my hardest not to go on a massive rampage. I was never really one to go off on people that I didn't know, but I was about ready to have a serious talk with this group of girls. Would they ever shut up? It was as if the part of their brains that actually controlled their mouthes was malfunctioning. I realized that this class was boring, trust me I wanted to talk just as much as they did, but at least I knew how to control myself. Even Marcus was staying quiet and listening. Well I mean he probably wasn't really listening, but he was being quiet.

The group of girls weren't even talking about anything that was really that important. One girl was complaining about how this guy wouldn't text her back, another was talking about some girl that she didn't like, calling her a slut, and the third was just simply encouraging them on. Don't encourage them what they're saying are awful and annoying. I didn't come to school to listen to these bozos talk. I came because it was some stupid law.

It was only first period and I was so done with today. The girls just kept talking and talking. Why did this stuff even really matter? It was all some stereotypical high school drama that you would always see in movies. It was just things that didn't really matter and that no one besides the cliché teenage girl would care about. But of course these girls decided that they were going to talk as loud as they could without getting in trouble. Shut the fuck up no one cares about your guy problems.

I knew I had another class at the end of the day with one of those girls. I couldn't really remember which one it was exactly, but I was pretty sure it was the one that was complaining about the guy that didn't want to text her back. I mean, she even talked to him all of lunch yesterday. She even told him her whole entire life story, which I imagined was full of heartbreak and despair. Jesus I could think of more entertaining things to talk about.

Though I imagined that if they had to listen to me talk they would be pretty annoyed as well. Normal girls usually didn't really enjoy me and my talking. Shannon was the only one that actually enjoyed my joking. And well, maybe Marcus enjoyed it as well, since he did make an effort for me to bring up our match that was supposedly coming up tomorrow. I didn't even know where this supposed 'ring' was.

Marcus put his head down on his desk, seeming just as done as me. I scooted up a little and put my head down right along with him, just so I could whisper, "I'll shoot you if you shoot me." I could hear him snort a little bit, and I smiled knowing that my joke had actually made some effect. No matter how many times I would make jokes and Marcus would respond well to them, I knew that I would always feel nervous about actually saying them.

Seeming to be from the heaven's the bell finally rang so I could leave that awful class. I stood up, pulling my bag up onto my shoulder. "Dude let's get out of here." I pushed Marcus on the back, to try and get him to leave quickly so I wouldn't have to get near the group of girls that were beginning to leave as well.

Marcus got the message and began to walk much faster than before and we were soon out of the classroom. "Freedom." I said plainly, as we began to make our way to our next classes.

"I think I popped a brain vessel from how badly I was beginning to grit my teeth together." Marcus held onto his head, and he looked as if he literally had a major headache. Poor thing.

I considered doing my usual thing by calling him a baby, but instead I chose to say, "and to think that we have seven more periods of this bullshit."

He moaned. "Thanks for the pick-up."

I smiled proudly. "No problem. It's what I'm here for. I'm probably the besttest friend that you'll ever have, right?"

He laughed. "definitely."

* * *

I was stuck in the back of the class, with that girl and her friend sitting right next to me. She was talking about the exact same thing as this morning. It was frustrating and aggravating. I really wished that Marcus was here so I could have someone to make jokes with, but sadly there was only some strange guy sitting in front of me, who I could probably never even talk to.

The pair continued talking, and I seriously felt awful for the teacher. The teacher was a sweet old woman who was very quiet and kind of a push-over. And these two girls were taking complete advantage of it. She was standing up at the front of the class, just trying to help us learn something. How could these girls be so rude to not even respect this woman when she was trying to help us? I seriously wanted to punch both of those girls in the mouth.

"Um, Naomi." The teacher said, in a sort of hushed tone. The teacher was obviously nervous about having to get onto one of her students.

Naomi completely ignored her and continued talking to her friend.

"Naomi, sweetie." The teacher tried again, but wasn't able to get her attention. Just shut your fucking mouth and listen to someone else besides yourself for one second. God this girl was such a bitch. I literally wanted to just slap her.

"Naomi." This time, Naomi finally listened, and turned her head to the teacher. I watched her, glaring at her the whole time. I swear to God if she tried to smart-mouth the teacher I would go off on her. She was driving me crazy.

"What?" She said, in an extremely annoyed tone. It was as if the teacher was interrupting _her_. She never even gave a second thought that maybe she was interrupting the teacher.

"Could you please stop talking?" The teacher seemed so nervous. She was too nice to be doing this.

"Uh no." Naomi turned her head, to see me, glaring at her. She stared into my eyes, and I instantly became flustered. "What are you looking at new girl?"

I felt my breathing become erratic, and I clawed the sleeves of my uniform trying to figure out what to do. Either I simply say 'nothing' or I tell her off. Surprisingly, I chose the latter. "Someone who is really irritating me."

"Excuse me?" I wasn't really sure what came over me. I guess all of my frustrations and angers just finally overflowed, and now I had successfully pissed this girl off. She looked as if she would be willing to try and start some fist-fight with me. I wasn't that tough, and I would probably easily lose. But I tried to stay strong.

"Can you please just stop talking. Our teacher is actually trying to teach us something. Maybe you should appreciate it." I said that pretty calmly, but I could feel my cheeks flare, knowing that people were looking at the 'new girl' who was standing up to this chick. I was good at arguing for fun, but never at actually getting into a fight with someone.

"Look I don't think that this is any of your business." She screamed, which sort of freaked me out, but I stayed strong. I had to. I wasn't letting this girl think that she had me because I was weak. I was standing up to this girl.

"I have to sit next to you, and listen to you talk the entire class period. I'm pretty sure that it is my business."

Naomi then stood up, and I was preparing myself to take a punch or slap to the face, but the teacher actually yelled. "That's enough. If you two don't stop I will have to call the principle."

Naomi smirked and sat back down. Did she think that she won? I brought my attention back to the front of the class, and caught the guy in front of me staring at me. He instantly turned back around, probably hoping that I didn't notice. I kept my face forward, trying to calm myself down. I was pissed, but I wasn't going to give any sign to Naomi that I was. I wasn't going to let her think that she had actually affected me.

The bell rang and I grabbed my stuff as quickly as I could, just so I could find Marcus and get out of this awful place. These people made me want to kill myself. I was so tired of being surrounded by all of these people who were still staring at me just because I had actually stood up to some popular stuck-up bitch.

I headed to my locker, and began to put my stuff away. Right when I placed my books into my locker I suddenly felt a hand touch my left shoulder. I turned around figuring that it was Marcus, but instead I found Naomi and a group of girls along with her. What was she doing? She placed her hand onto the lockers, and leaned her face close to mine.

"What was that little stunt that you played in class?" I wasn't prepared for this. I wanted to get out of here. Where was Marcus? I wanted him here.

"I don't know. I was just speaking my mind." I gripped the strap of my bag. I'm gonna be honest, I was scared, but I tried not to show it.

"Oh, so what others things have you been thinking about me?' I don't think she really wanted to know.

"You're annoying and all you ever do is talk about yourself. You never even seem to give a damn about anyone else..."

I wasn't able to finish my sentence, before I felt my cheek sting, realizing that Naomi had just slapped me. I turned my face back to her, in surprise. I couldn't believe that she had just did that. A teacher would come by and help me, right? Someone would notice that a group of girls were surrounding me, right?

"You got anything else to say, newbie?" I stayed quiet. Again, I tried to stay tough, but I was secretly terrified of getting my ass kicked.

She smacked me again, this time on the other cheek. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her friends laughing. Was this seriously funny to them? How could they help this girl try and scare me? What kind of messed up minds did these people have? I wanted out now. I wanted to leave and never come back. I felt like crying.

One of her friends pulled my hair, and was still laughing. God it hurt like hell, but I managed to not let out tears of pain. It felt as if this girl was about ready to pull out my hair, just for her one friend that I had offended. I gritted my teeth, to keep myself from breaking underneath the pressure.

"Alright, so let's see what kind of work we can find in here." The girl that had my hair pulled even harder, giving Naomi the chance to get my bag. She began going through my things, pulling out random papers and smiling. "It would be a shame if I didn't get a grade on this stuff, I guess I'll take it for myself." I gripped my skirt, wanting to break free desperately to try and get my hands on her.

"Hey!" I heard Marcus yell.

Naomi turned around and smiled seeing him run up to us. "Well isn't it little Marcus Damon." She dropped my stuff on the ground and shrugged. "Sorry that I had to hurt your little girlfriend."

Her friend let go of my hair and pushed me away from her, as if I was disgusting. I had to catch myself from falling right on my face. Naomi then began to walk away, still holding the papers that she had taken out of my bag, and waved. "I'll see you later, newbie."

I held the back of my head, feeling the awful headache that was hitting my head. Marcus ran up to me, and picked up my stuff, before saying, "are you okay?"

I grabbed my stuff out of Marcus' hand, and stood up straight. "I'm perfectly fine, Marcus. I can take care of myself."

He gave me a worried look. He honestly seemed worried about me, and it pissed me off. I didn't want to be seen as some victim to him. Yes, I wanted him there, but I wasn't prepared for the look that he was giving me. I wanted to run away and never come back. I wanted to go back to Austria and be with Shannon and Lewis and not have to go to school.

"Those girls are a bunch of assholes, alright?' I already knew that. I'm not stupid.

I slung my bag on my shoulder. "Can we just leave?"

"Yeah. Of course."

We stayed quiet as we walked to DATS. I really didn't want to talk, mostly because I honestly felt as if, if I did talk, I would just start sobbing. I didn't want to admit it, but the events that had just happened had really messed me up, probably even more than being attacked by a digimon. At least that digimon was just an animal. Naomi was an actual human being who knew what she was doing to me. Even her friends wanted to hurt me, as much as they could.

What if they did that again tomorrow? What if they never left me alone ever again? I had made an extremely stupid decision. I should have just stayed quiet, and not said a word. Then maybe I wouldn't have a massive headache, have papers missing from my bag, and wouldn't be afraid to talk to my only friend.

I knew Marcus was worried about me. I knew he was probably looking at me, trying to figure out if I was okay. I wanted to be able to tell him that I was fine. I wanted to say that I would be okay and that I wouldn't be scared at school, and that I would go home and start crying. I couldn't speak. I couldn't cry in front of Marcus. I didn't want him to see me as weak, dumb girl who couldn't handle herself.

"Hey, Merri." I looked up to Marcus, and by the way he was looking at me, I had to bite my tongue to keep from crying. "Merri, are you okay?"

I shook my head, and closed my eyes. I stopped walking, and took in a heavy breath trying not to just fall on the ground and give up on life. I didn't want to be here anymore. I wanted to go back home. I wanted Shannon cracking jokes and Lewis being a charming asshole. I wanted to be homeschooled with my awesome teacher who was nice to me and knew exactly how to teach me.

"Hey I know this cool place where we can go. We won't have to be around people. Does that sound okay?"

I opened my eyes, looked up to Marcus and nodded. Getting away from people sounded nice. Going to DATS didn't really sound like the best idea. Everyone would ask me what was wrong, and I didn't really want to be surrounded by that. Maybe leaving would give me a chance to calm down and not cry myself to sleep tonight.

Marcus led me to an empty area, that was very open. There was so much space, and it was strange that there was absolutely no one there. It seemed to be a perfect place for teenagers to come and hang out. I followed Marcus down some stairs, and to a small area right along some sort of cliff side. I imagined that it was nice to just sit out here and look up at the sky.

We sat down, and I continued my quiet streak. Marcus began to talk saying, "this is like my training ground. I liked this area a lot, so I kind of claimed it as my own territory. That's why no one really comes down here."

I laid my head down on Marcus' shoulder. He looked down at me, a little surprised, but I couldn't really care. I just wanted a little bit of comfort. I used to always lay my head on Lewis' shoulder, and he never seemed to mind. In fact he absolutely loved it when I laid my head on his shoulder. He said it made him feel like he was some sort of protector. I wish he was here now to try and help me to not cry.

"You don't have to worry about those girls. If they try to mess with you again, I'll be there to stop them. I'm not going to let them do that to you again."

I didn't know what was with that sentence, but it broke me. I pulled my knees up to my chest, and began to cry softly. I didn't want to be someone's little thing that they had to protect. I just wanted someone to care about me, I didnt' want to just have someone to only be there to watch out for me. It made me feel like there was no other point of me being there.

Obviously Marcus wasn't really sure what to do. He tried to say comforting things like, "it's okay," and "everything is going to be fine," but sadly none of those things worked to calm me down. I wasn't really sure anything was going to successfully calm me down. My hopes were destroyed of this quiet and isolated place making me feel any better.

"God I fucking hate this place!" I screamed, wanting to get out all of my frustrations. "I want to go back home and never come back! I hate not having my friends here with me, and I hate having to go to school! I hate being surrounded by people who are constantly asking me if I'm okay! I don't want to just be someone's little precious thing that they have to protect!"

I started sobbing, not really being able to control myself. Marcus wrapped his arms around me, and I could tell that he still wasn't exactly sure what to do. What would you do if a sobbing girl was in your arms?

"You're not just something that I have to protect. Merri, you're my friend."

I started to stop sobbing, even though I still felt like crying. My tear ducts must have dried out or something. I kept my head buried in my knees, trying my hardest to take in what he said. I wanted to believe him, I really did, but he already had to save me twice. What else was I supposed to think? All of this was infuriating.

"I just want to matter to someone." I muttered.

Marcus didn't say anything, so I sat up, with him still holding onto me. I brushed my hair out of my face, and wiped my eyes to get rid of the leftover tears. Two mental breakdowns in about two months. Man, this was fantastic. And of course they were both in front of someone that I really didn't want to freak out.

"Why do you think that you don't matter to anyone?" I heard Marcus ask.

I did the disgusting thing of snorting, before saying, "I don't know. I guess I'm just an idiot." Maybe this was all created from some teenage hormonal bullshit.

"That can't be it." Marcus pointed to himself and smiled. "I'm supposed to be the idiot."

I let out a small smile before saying, "I guess I never really had that many friends. I mean, I had friends, but they always seemed to have someone better to hang out with. C'mon, look at me. I'm some awkward person who is a sarcastic asshole, and who can barely go without having some mental breakdown. And most of the time I don't even know why I'm having them."

"There's nothing wrong with not having many friends," Marcus let go of me and leaned back on his hands, "I've never had that many friends. Even the friends I do have are just people I talk to at school. To be honest you and Agumon are probably the only real friends that I have."

He had that same cocky smile that he always had when he was proud of himself, but he seemed genuine. Oh man, he was still cute. God I had just cried in front of this guy a few seconds ago, but my mind was deciding to get a stupid crush on this guy without my permission again. No I needed to stop. I needed to stop being a moron. Why was I beginning to think that pining after this guy was a good idea?

"Must be a pretty sad life you live, to have me as one of your only friends." I laid down on my back, and covered my eyes with my arms. "I want to take a nap."

He laughed and laid down with me. "I could walk you home."

I shrugged. "If you really want to."

He flicked me on the forehead, and I considered punching him in the stomach before he said, "stop being so depressing."

I crossed my arms. "I can be as depressing as I want to. You can't stop me."

He crossed his arms as well, seeming to try and imitate me, "alright fine."

"Stop being such an ass." I snapped. "I just had a mental breakdown. You have to be nice to me."

He smirked. "I can do _whatever _I want."

"Is that like your code of life or something?"

He nodded. "Yep."

"Jesus Christ there's gotta be something wrong with you." Yeah Merri, that was it. There was something wrong with him. That was the cause of all your problems.

"You still hang out with me, so obviously there's nothing seriously wrong with me."

"Were you dropped on the head as a baby?" I joked.

He glared at me. "No. Were you dropped on the head as a baby?'

I thought about it for a second before saying, "most likely. I mean, my dad always did hate me so maybe he thought that dropping me on my head could fix me."

"It didn't work."

I giggled. "I know it didn't." My phone then went off, and it was a text from Thomas asking where I was. I sat up again, already missing laying down with Marcus and just talking. Eew gross I was enjoying something cute that happened between Marcus and I.

He sat up along with me, seeming to know exactly who it was and what was going on. He stood up as I texted Thomas back. I looked up to him, not really wanting to move. I held my hand up to him and said, "help me up. I don't want to get up."

"And you call me a baby." He snarked, as he grabbed my hand and helped me up. It was weird, having him hold my hand, even if it wasn't in the way my mind was secretly hoping for. Was I going insane?

"You are a baby. I'm just extremely lazy." I explained to him.

On the way to DATS, me and Marcus continued our snarky conversation together. Talking to him seemed even better than before. Our conversations never seemed to ever get repetitive or boring, but maybe that was just apart of having a crush on someone. I felt the same thing with Lewis. Even when we had topic-less conversations, I still had fun talking to him. I wondered if this feeling would ever go away. It was probably just some stupid high school feelings.

But there was something different about Marcus. I didn't notice it the first time I met him, but now it was completely clear. He was just so carefree and happy all the time. His attitude was contagious, and it just made me want to hang out with him even more. I liked being happy with him. I liked our stupid conversations that usually just ended up with us arguing over things that didn't really matter.

I was laughing after telling Marcus off, but I was awoken out of my stupid happiness when Marcus muttered, "you matter to me."

I stopped laughing, and saw his eyes glow bright as he looked at me, waiting for my response. "Well you matter to me too."

We continued walking and Marcus eventually broke the silence and kept talking. I was happy. I was extremely happy. I always thought that having a digimon was the only way that I could have someone that cared about me no matter what. Seeing Gaomon and Thomas around me when I was little always told me that I needed a digimon to have a true friend. They were so happy together. And Marcus and Agumon were surprisingly close as well.

Maybe one day I would have a digimon partner, but I didn't absolutely need it. It would be nice to have someone by my side, but I was now determined to survive as I was right now. I could survive without a digimon. I'm pretty sure that, that girl wouldn't mess with me tomorrow. She probably forgot about me already. And the chances of being attacked by another digimon were one in a million.

I could make it.


End file.
